Nier Automata - PS4 Review

Nier Automata is one of those games that if you haven’t played, you’ve more than likely heard of. From the same person that brought us the feels-fest that was Drakengard, we get the sequel to Nier: Gestalt/Replicant.

Nier: Automata takes place in a post-apocalyptic style world, where aliens have invaded using machines as an army force, and all the humans have fled to the moon. You take up the role of 2B, and 9S, two androids in the service of YorHa, the militant group dedicated to wiping out the alien threat. The plotline, while interesting, isn’t exactly going to be giving you any surprises, or at least I don’t expect it to. Almost every “plot twist” you can probably see coming a mile away. What the story lacks in surprises, it definitely gets you on many of the smaller aspects: the interactions between characters, the extra conversations from the side quests, and the general lore you pick up about the world are what really draw you in.

Gameplay is a weird mash-up of top down hack-and-slash, 3-D action, top-down shooter, and scrolling top-down shooter. While I know that other people really disliked having all these different aspects mashed into one game, I really appreciated the variety it gives in gameplay. The 3-D action is where most of the game will take place in, and is how you roam the world, accept and complete side-quests, and progress in your YorHa mission to defend the Earth. 2B is attack based, having a main attack and a secondary attack, while 9S is a whiny tag-along who can hack enemies and locked chests. As you hack and slash your way through enemies, you can pick up chips and programs that you can equip for various effects, such as increasing attack or defense, or increasing movement speed. The shooter sections are fairly straightforward, usually being either an auto-scroller or having a single route to follow.

Where would we be if we didn’t talk about the soundtrack? Nier: Automata has a seriously wonderful soundtrack, and also has an in-game jukebox with various remixes in the main camp you’ll be visiting. Be careful though, one of the song titles is a spoiler if you recognize where it’s played in-game. The music was always great, regardless of whether it was a boss fight, a background tune for the area you’re in, or the event music.

Nier: Automata is a really weird game for me to give a solid score to, because there was a lot I thought could have been done better. I would have liked to see more ship/mech battles, the combat can be trivialized with the right program loadout, 9S is one of the most annoying main characters I’ve had to suffer through for quite some time, and the third character you can play as gets way too little screen time.

The areas may be big and pretty, but it takes you a long time walking back and forth through a lot of them before you get the fast travel option, which became available right as I was on the verge of getting fed up, so whether that’s a happy coincidence or good planning I’m not certain, but the fast travel would have been handier earlier. Some of your mission directives can be rather vague at times, and you can get a ridiculously huge zone displaying for where you’re supposed to be to fulfill your directives. While the variety of different weapons is nice, and it’s great to be able to upgrade them, some of the items needed to upgrade either your ranged firing pod assistant or the weapons themselves are downright infuriatingly annoying to get cough purewater cough.

Ultimately, Nier: Automata is a game that I absolutely loved, but I have a really hard time figuring out why. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere, maybe it’s the music. It could be the intriguing side-quests, or maybe I just like beating up robots. It could be the swathe of multiple endings you can get, or it could be the entertaining characters. Regardless, despite its many faults, there is a certain draw that will keep you playing for long after you think you’ll stop.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
PlatinumGames Inc.
Publisher(s):
Square Enix
Genre(s):
Action
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox One
PC

Source:
Purchased

Article by Richard

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Nier: Automata Become as Gods Edition - XB1 Review

2017's underground hit, Nier: Automata, has finally made its way to Xbox One so gamers on any platform can now enjoy the excellent, if odd at times, unique gameplay that can be found within. Packaged with the core game is the small expansion 3C3C1D119440927 as well as a Machine Mask Accessory and a handful of Pod skins.

Buttery smooth, full of weird and often uncomfortable moments, Nier: Automata is a bizarre amalgam of genres, from twin-stick shooter to bullet-hell to platformer to hack-and-slash style action-RPG and the mixture is potent. Nier: Automata - BECOME AS GODS edition's deep customization of skills and functions, a large open world, and a thickly oppressive yet wildly intriguing story are distinctly unique yet utterly familiar to players new to the Drakengard and Nier franchises. Nier: Automata - BECOME AS GODS edition, released in June 2018 for Xbox One, is a wonderful example of video game design done right.

And the soundtrack is easily better than any OST I have heard in the past decade; well done Keiichi Okabe (Nier: Automata's composer). Well done indeed.

With complete honesty, I did not like Nier: Automata for the first few hours of the game. It did not dig its wildly attractive android fingers into my soul until after the initial desert area/first true boss outside of the opening. Even with its extremely awesome way of switching game styles on-the-fly, I struggled with becoming invested in the characters (and I can easily debate that I am still not invested in them) or finding any real depth in the story.

Slogging on was recommended though, and so I did and while I cannot say that I am attached to 2B in an emotional sense, I CAN say that it is the world-building that I am most emotionally invested in. The clever use of set-pieces tied to what is easily the best music I have heard since Mass Effect 3 was released (and it is not hard to argue that the music itself for Nier: Automata is better than Mass Effect 3, because it is, but Nier: Automata does not have the emotional impact that ME3 had … largely because I am an absolute fan-boy of the first three Mass Effect games) is really what began to take hold of me. Though the colors are decidedly varying shades of brown and a lot of dust, the eerie anime-meets-Dark Souls music (serious Ghost in the Shell vibes here, tied with plenty of epic moments in the Soulsbourne franchises) ties it together in a hauntingly beautiful and often tragic package.

Nier: Automata is not just about overly attractive androids, post-apocalyptic Earth, and absolutely perfect music, oh no. It is all about the gameplay and with the varying styles that are seamlessly woven throughout each area/level, there is plenty here to be enthralled by. Navigating the rusted, broken down ruins of the various locations can go from a rear-camera action title to side-scrolling beat-em-up to a top-down twin-stick shooter in a heartbeat and the most awe-inspiring thing about these transitions? They feel completely natural. The shift in gameplay genre is not all that can keep you engrossed though, as there are a bazillion different customizable options for you that allow you to create the perfect 2B for your playstyle.

Though there are traditional "level ups" in N:A, the real customization comes in the form of plug-and-play chips. As you are an android you can upgrade your system no different than you can today with a computer; to maintain some restriction on upgrades though, there are a limited number of slots that you get (that expands as you level up/purchase slot expansions) so you may find a particularly useful upgrade near the start of the game, it could take 11 expansion slots which is about all you have to start; instead you may find other, "smaller" packs that can provide better, more useful passive skills. I for one bypassed the initial Attack Up chip that I found that used 11 slots and instead added a few more useful options like an auto-heal when critical and a shockwave chip (which adds stun to your attacks).

In retrospect, looking at the upgrade method in N:A I was distinctly reminded of the flexibility (and potentially devastating outcome) of the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII. Combine the modularity of the chip system to the upgradability and fantastically varied range of weapons and you can tailor 2B to be the perfect alien/machine destroyer. With weapon setups similar to those found in the Soulsbourne games, two loadouts with a left and right weapon, you can switch between the weapon setups that you need to get you through the 26 endings found throughout Nier: Automata (yup, 26 of them, one for each letter of the alphabet). I myself am actually partial to unarmed+spear and short sword+short sword.

Minus the ever-encroaching desert, which I abhor because desert environments in video games are horrifically boring, each environment and model in Nier: Automata - BECOME AS GODS edition is painstakingly created to entrench you in the post-apocalyptic Earth where Automata takes place. Visiting the ruined husks of long-lost civilization as you work to free the broken remnant of our Blue Planet, Nier will take you through countless dungeons as you face off against enemies and aliens both tiny and absolutely massive. As you wade through the ashes of yester-year, 2B and crew will slowly grow on you as you continue to meld her into your perfect weapon.

With interesting mechanics such as "beating" the game for dying at certain times or doing silly things like removing your operating system, or the extremely odd way that some of the enemy machines pantomime the more mundane (or not so mundane) actions of humanity, Nier: Automata is oft-times confusing but the deftness with which the various elements found throughout, miraculously pulls the game together and is anchored by the best music in the business. What results is easily the most under-appreciated game of these last two years.

Game Information

Platform:
Microsoft Xbox One
Developer(s):
PlatinumGames Inc.
Publisher(s):
Square Enix
Genre(s):
Action
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Robert

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